Posted on this site are my thoughts on current social and political issues. Liberals, Communists (Is there really a difference between the two?) and atheists will probably be offended. If you are one of the above and are offended, my mission is accomplished.

Monday, July 10, 2006

XXX: State of the Union: The Movie, the Propaganda

I finally saw XXX: The State of the Union. The plot of the movie was XXX (Ice Cube) attempting to thwart a coup d’etat of a liberal president and cabinet. The point of this writing isn’t to complain about the movie’s lack of realism, i.e., a group of thieves and gang-bangers fighting and beating a group of highly trained, however treasonous (depending on your view on the true state of the union) soldiers. What irritated me was the leftist propaganda in the film.

Now I’ve long since accepted that movies, theatre, television and cable often have a left-wing bent to them. The left-wing slant in XXX was a bit more than I usually tolerate. If I hadn’t had one of my friends over, I wouldn’t have continued watching it.

The first piece of propaganda was when Ice Cube (XXX) was speaking to a senator’s aide and an NRA lobbyist approached table to speak with the aide. Cube told the lobbyist he was a Baptist minister and the lobbyist asked how the NRA could get more support among blacks. Cube told him they, (the NRA) could stop burning crosses and shooting black people. Normally, that would have been the point where I would have turned off the movie and perhaps watched Swordfish or Blackhawk Down again.

I’m under 50 years old so perhaps there was a time prior to that when the NRA “burned crosses” and “shot black people”. However, I’m pretty sure Cube was only spouting off a load of crap. The last time I checked most black people were being shot by other black people, not the NRA or for that matter, not the police. Perhaps Senator Byrd can tell Ice Cube, how many of his allegedly “former” KKK associates teamed up with the NRA and terrorized Negroes.

The other heavy-handed piece of leftist propaganda was the movie president’s speech, which blended in bits of Comrade-presidents Clinton and Carter and the worst of a President Bush. The “president” called for the U.S. to decrease defense spending and give more to international aid and of wining the “hearts and minds” of our enemies and making them our “friends”. OK, will someone remind me why anyone wouldn’t want this clown overthrown? If I didn’t already know the outcome of the film, I would have rooted for William Defoe (The “bad” guy) and his crew.

Now I am reasonably sure the main goal of the film’s writers was entertainment and not to propagandize the viewers. The writers may have just thought the views presented were the opinions many of the audience already held.